Gods of Darkness: A False Image
by shadowwriter01
Summary: Side story to Gods of Darkness. What would have been if Raynare had actually placed her soul in Rias body?
1. Chapter 1: Something s Different

**This is an AU for the story Gods of Darkness.  
**

 **So the first six chapters of G.o.D. will have happened here in exactly the same way. Then things started to get different.**

 **This has already been published by Terence Noran, as part of his Raynare Challenges on my request. Back then I had no real inspiration for this story beyond the basic idea and also little time to write it.**

 **Recently however I have developed some more ideas.  
**

 **The first chapter is basically the same as the original Challenge, but longer and I added some details. Akeno will probably be the main character of this story.**

 **The plot starts a few weeks after Issei´s confrontation with the Spirit Wraith, that happened in chapters 6 to 8 of Gods of Darkness. But the outcome was quite different.  
**

* * *

 **Gods of Darkness:**

 **A False Image**

 _Occult Research Club, Kuoh Academy School Building_

It was one of the many meetings of the Occult Research Club in the last time. A club that was actually not much more than a fassade for the Devil Rias Gremory and her peerage of servants.

Of course for the `normal´ students and the rest of the school, Rias and the others were simply a group of very popular students.

But the truth was quite different. In fact they were one of the most famous peerage of young Devils in the Underworld.

While here at school, the most popular members of their group, were Rias herself and her Queen and right hand Akeno, both were also known as `Great Ladies of Kuoh´ in the school... and Kiba Yuuto, who was popular in first line under the female students... in the Underworld things were a bit different. Here the most well known members of their group - aside from Rias herself - was probably Issei Hyoudou, the current holder of the Boosted Gear - who was known as the current Red Dragon Emperor, hero of the Underworld... and a complete pervert.

But that didn´t keep several of the girls around him to fall in love with him, who had by now basically become his personal harem... just like it was his dream, like he always proclaimed to the world.

But then, a few weeks ago, something had suddenly changed. It was a subtle change that had gone through their entire team. At first most of them had not even noticed, but slowly it became more and more noticable... more and more.

They weren´t sure, but started had it, more or less, at the time after Rias had been attacked by a creature from another dimension, a few weeks ago.

 **xxx**

All of the members were in this moment sitting together in their club room.  
At a first glance, everything looks normal. Still, none of them could really deny that there was a certain tense atmosphere in the room. Like it had often been in the last time.

Rias had called this meeting, for the same topic that it had nearly always been during the last couple of weeks, which is to discuss their latest information and findings about Khaos Brigade and their possible plans.

They all knew that the interfactional terrorist-organization was a great threat. But with the way she ran things lately, it was nearly as if she was thinking of nothing else anymore. As if she had become obsessed with them... or as if she knew something the others didn't.

She used to talk with Akeno about everything. But now, Rias didn't spend nearly as much time with her Queen as she used to.

On the other side she was talking an awful lot alone with Azazel and with Issei of course, but that was no surprise for anyone. Especially not since Issei had now finally confessed his feelings to her... and then saved her once time from the clutches of the creature known as the Spirit Wraith.

None of her other servants knew what exactly was said in these meetings with Issei and the Fallen Angel leader.

No, there was no point to deny it... Rias had changed. For the most part she was still the same Club president and King they were all used to.  
But sometimes it was nearly as if there was a wall between them.

Yet none of them could hold it against her, after what she had gone through.

They all knew exactly when this change had begun. Right after this creature had attacked Rias, when she had collapsed right in the middle of the Halloween party at their school.

They still didn't know much about this being, only that it drove its victims insane by showing them their worst fears again and again. How it systematically destroyed their minds...

... before it in the end sucked their soul out of their bodies.

Issei and the others had managed to stop it. But nobody would come out of something like this unscathed. They weren´t even sure what this... `thing´ had put their beloved King through, before Issei, with a bit of help from Michael and the rest of them, had managed to drive the creature out.

Well, if they were honest, their help had mostly consisted of helping Issei to reach the so called Spirit Plane, where he had confronted the monster. The rest of it, how he actually defeated the Wraith, that had been Issei´s work alone.

That was what Akeno thought to herself, as she watched him and Rias sitting side by side in the club-room, as they all were discussing their activities of the last weeks.

 **xxx**

"Is that all, Akeno?" Rias asked her.

"Yes Buchou," the Queen of her peerage responded.

"Good, then let us call it a day for now," Rias said to the others, smiling in her usual way. She began raising her arms and stretched her body.

"Wait a moment," she stopped them, just as Akeno, Kiba, Koneko, Xenovia and Rossweisse were turning around to leave the room. "I just wanted to say... I know I was kind of difficult with everyone lately," she told them. "It is just, I am worried. So thank you, all of you, for the patience you have shown me," she stated and gave them a smile.

"Issei-kun, could you stay here for a minute? I need to talk with you about something," she addressed him.

"Of course... **_Ra - Rias_** ," he answered, with a slight hitch in his tone.

Some of them have noticed the short hesitation as he said this. Well, at least Akeno and Koneko did, mostly because they were the ones really paying attention to it. But they knew all too well that Issei was still a bit unused to call her by her name instead of the usual 'Buchou'. So they didn't think much about it.

"Okay," Akeno replied. But before she left, she bowed down right next to Issei who was still sitting on his chair, "See you later Issei-kun.  
Hope we have some... fun, if you know what I mean," she whispered seductively into his ear and winked, before she followed the others and left the room.

Issei and their 'Club President' were being left alone by themselves.

"It was very nice of you to say that... 'Buchou'," he stated with clear bitterness in his tone.

"You sound unhappy Issei-kun. Is it because of... *her*, am I right?" she replied.

"Of course it is..." he started to say, but then fell silent. '...it always is.' He looked down with a pained expression.

"It really isn't my fault for what happened to her, you know?" she said nonchalantly. "I had, in the end, agreed to help. Not for **her**  
sake, but yours. We have just come too late to save her."

"Too late..." he said. "...again. Or, I was simply not strong enough.  
Like the last time I failed to save someone I care about...and the one before that . How many more times will this happen?"

"I-I am sorry Issei-kun. I know I... said it before, but... I know how much I hurt you that time. Often, I had wished I had just listened to you and given it back... before. But because of my arrogance, I was far too stubborn and stuck-up to do anything about it."

"Don't worry about it," he told her. But his expression showed how much this memory still hurt him. "As I said, I forgive you."

"I promise you, I will not let anything happen to Asia again," she said. "I will do everything to protect her."

"Just Asia? And, what about the others?" Issei inquired.

A smile formed on her face... a rather mischievous one, to be precise.  
Her expression and also her body language had somehow changed since the others had left the room a minute ago. Only Issei will ever be allowed to see her like this. Only.

"Don't worry, Issei-kun. I won't intentionally lead your little friends to their death or something like that, if that is what you mean," she stated. "Even if there were some... temptations, so to speak," she admitted with a smirk.

The color of her eyes suddenly turned from Rias' usual blue irises into a deep violet. A very familiar eye color that Issei knew all too well.

"And, you can also keep the other girls as your mistresses when this deal here is over. I don't have any real problem with that. That means... of course under the condition that, if Azazel-sama should come to his senses and decide to return my feelings, you are willing to share me with him as well," she reminded him smiling. "Of course they all will certainly not be happy if they find out," she said.

"By the way Issei-kun, do you have it?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he replied, returning her smile for a short moment and took something out of his pocket and holding it between two fingers...a single black feather.

Now her expression visibly brightened up even more as she saw this.

"Oh Issei-kun, I knew I could count on you." She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a quick kiss. But he froze up in response as she did that, causing her to notice.

"Issei?" she asked, worried.

"It's... nothing, it's just... I can't get used to it," he said. "It's just wrong seeing you like this... seeing you as `her´.

"I know," she replied. "Well, it won't be for much longer it seems," she stated, looking at the feather.

"You know, you could have also done this by yourself," he reminded her.

"Of course. But you have to admit, the younger sister of Sirzechs Lucifer suddenly showing up at the Grigori Headquarters and on top of that looking through the old room of a Fallen Angel who was killed some time ago, by her hand no less, would look quite suspicious. But with you, considering the history you have with this particular Fallen Angel... it looks less suspicious. Now it seems that I will be myself again very soon."

"I am surprised actually, that nobody had found out so far," he commented.

"You know, being Rias Gremory is really not that hard," she responded. "I just have to act even more arrogant than before... and say stuff on a regular basis on how much I ca~re about everyone here. Like I should care about them," she declared sarcastically... while faltering her hands, nearly as if she was praying.

"Stop that," he growled. "Don't talk about Rias like that ever, not when you are standing here and using her body as if it belongs to you."

"Ah yes, Rias..." she said bitterly...

"... - who knew I was targeting you... but didn't even lift a finger or say a word to prevent me from killing you...and just simply turned you into a Devil without your consent afterwards. But just three days later, she was suddenly able to start a full scale attack to destroy my entire team and didn't spare a single life, not caring if she would provoke a war or not. But of course only **after** you were dead, resurrected as a Devil and under her boot," she reminded him.

" - Rias, who endangered this entire town against Kokabiel, just because she was too arrogant to ask for back-up from the Underworld. Don't act as if that girl suddenly was a saint, just because she is gone. Because she wasn´t. She was just as full of dirt like me. The only difference is that she was a giant two-faced holier-than-thou prick about it."

Issei said nothing.

"Rias was the one who had destroyed my body in the first place," she reminded him. "Tell me, if I hadn't placed my soul into her body, would have that changed for the better? Should I have stayed a bodiless spirit, while `Rias Gremory´ had been reduced to nothing but a lifeless doll? Who would that have helped?

Your team would have possibly been broken up and your peerage absorbed by Rias' father's or her brother's... or some other random High-Class Devil. Your friends. The Gremory family, they would all be grieving and distracted if they knew that their `precious´ Rias was dead. All that at a time when there are truly other things to worry about. You know about the new enemies out there."

He frowned. "Yeah, the monster that Khaos Brigade is planning to awake," he responded. "That and... *them*."

Yes, he knew. **`Them´** \- The being calling himself `Faust´ - who Raynare had encountered when she was `dead´ - a super-being with seemingly unlimited power - a wanderer between the realities... and others like him.

"Issei, I don't want to argue with you," she said. "Just... don't."

"I know. But, it's just..." he grimaced.

"How? How in the world can I be sure that you're not playing me again? Why should I suddenly believe that you truly care about me now, when it was you who killed me in the first place?! That you aren't just using me until you have your body back and then betray me again?!" he suddenly exclaimed. "How can I even believe a single word you say?! Do you even know how often I have closed my eyes, seeing pictures of you killing me?!"

"I-I am sorry Issei-kun. I am so sorry," she said quietly, her grip tightened. "Please believe me." She did know, she truly did... She had known the consequences her actions had on him for a long time now. But there was nothing now she could do to change it.

But then her expression hardened. 'No, I won't... I won't let it... Never again. I won't lose him.' She had never realized what she had found in Issei back then, the first time around. Instead she kiled him and had treated him as if he was beneath her. She had truly been a arrogant bitch.

Dieing (well, actually more, having her body destroyed) and having her spirit bound to Issei for months, not to mention several reality-checks from Faust of all people, had certainly helped to change her attitude.

"Issei, what if I simply told you right in the face now that what you fear is true? That I am truly only using you?" she asked him.

This caused him to visibly flinch, as he heard this words.

"No Issei, listen to me," she interrupted him as she saw his expression faltering. "I know more about this new threat than anybody else. I actually met **them** face to face. I have information about them that nobody else possess... and I am an experienced group leader, the only one who's left in your little Devil team right now. So you see, I don´t need to pretend to care about you, simply because, you **need** me. And even if I would **not** care about you, you would **still** need me - and I need you," she added a bit quieter. **  
**

"However, I do admit that I still like it to play with you a bit." She came closer and let one of her fingers glide over his face and his upper body.  
"Because you are just too cute... when you are unsettled," she said to him suggestively... while wrapping her arms around him and playfully biting his ear, before straddling him.

 **xxx**

 _At the same time. Outside, Close to the building_

Akeno and Koneko were there, floating on a small magic circle which was hanging in the air before them. They had overheard every single word.  
The two members of the Gremory peerage were now staring at each other with open mouths.

Both of them had been worried, especially since they realized that Rias was actually hiding a part of her presence from all of them.

Of course spying on your King is about the last thing any Devil should do. But they were not only Rias' servants, they were also her friends... and they just could no longer take it, being cut out of the loop like that.

What they got was far more than they ever expected.

"I can't believe it," Akeno whispered.

"H-her? I-in R-Rias? In her body?" Koneko stammered. "What do we do?" the younger girl asked her.

"I don't know, Koneko," she answered. "Believe me, I would like nothing more than to just walk in there and end this charade. But..."

Akeno forced herself to think logically, well somewhat logically, despite her own shock and grieve in this moment. In fact she wanted nothing more than to burst in there and confront the Fallen Angel, in the form of her best friend, right now and possibly attack her.

She realized that the Fallen had a point with her argument - as much as she hated to admit it. Revealing the truth right now would only destabilize their group. And since their peerage was part of the DxD team that was formed to fight Khaos Brigade and their plans, this was the last thing they needed.

And if what Issei and the Fallen said about yet another dangerous enemy was true... one that `she´ had special information about?

"... What can we really do in this situation?" she questioned.

Azazel knew, she remembered. Did that mean that Sirzechs did as well? Michael? If they all knew and accepted the Fallen Angel in this position... yes, what could they do?

"She has seduced him... " Koneko argued, "That Fallen Angel got to him... **again**... and now she is leading the pervert along. She had wrapped **our** Issei around her finger," she let out a light growl.

"You sound as if we haven´t been doing the same thing quite often," Akeno replied sarcastically and with a grin on her face.

But a moment later, her grim expression returned to her face.

One horrid truth finally completely started to settle in: Rias was dead... she had been for weeks, and replaced by an impostor... and they had not even noticed. Her best friend had been murdered by that wretched creature... and **Akeno herself** had not even noticed.

And Issei and Azazel had know... and hadn´t told her, hadn´t **trusted** her. But she forced herself to swallow down her anger and bitterness.

"I would agree with you Koneko, if it were not for two things," she stated. "If she truly wanted to harm us, she could have done it a thousand times by now... especially with Issei-kun, as you called it, `wrapped around her finger´... and second - Azazel knows about this as well... and he seems to be okay with her being here. and he had been our ally for months now. If he knows and accepts her presence, then there is possible a good reason for that."

Koneko send her a glare, but seemed to accept this argument.

"So what do you suggest we do?" she asked Akeno.

"I admit, I am not sure... yet."

Yes, what? she thought.

As absurd as the thought was... **Raynare** was leading their peerage... and somewhere deep in her mind, Akeno grudgingly admitted, the Fallen Angel was not even doing a bad job on it.

But Akeno was sure about one thing. The would hunt down the creature that had killed Rias - she clinched her teeth in pure hatred... and then, she would find a way to destroy it.

* * *

 **The idea of this story is basically, what if Raynare had actually taken over Rias body, like she had originally considered.**

 **This story is however based on the same multiple world angle like `Gods of Darkness´ and`Issei Hyoudou: The Guardian´ and is so practically a third part of the same multiple world story. So this is not simply a what-if scenario. Both versions are actually supposed to have happened... in different universes that branched from each other around chapter 7 of Gods of Darkness.**

 **The most notable differences so far are: Issei and Raynare reached Rias too late to save her from the Wraith. As a result Raynare decided to place her soul into Rias now mindless body and was living her life since then.**

 **Issei and Irina had never lost their memories of the events. But Raynare used the new enemy she had been in contact with (Aka Faust and the Dark Order from Guardian and G.o.D.) and her knowledge about them as an argument to get them to play along with her. She had also revealed herself to Azazel.**

* * *

Highschool DxD or anything related to it, doesn´t belong to me.


	2. Chapter 2: Day with Devils

**Chapter 2  
**

 _Akeno´s Pov:_

It was nearly a month, a little over three weeks, that had passed since that day... the time when both, Akeno and Koneko had found out the truth about `Rias´.

It was a month in that - at least for them - nothing had really changed.

In other words, they had done nothing about what they found out, Akeno thought bitter. They had just played along and pretended everything was like always. At least for the most part.

It had been weeks of insecurity for them - weeks in that they had not been quite sure what to do.

While they both had liked nothing more than to come out and confront Raynare and Issei about what they found out, there were several factors that kept them from doing exactly that.

The probably most important of them was named... **Sirzechs**.

Akeno had been thinking about the situation they were in. In the afterward, she was glad that they didn´t just came out with what they had discovered right away.

They knew for sure that at least Azazel was aware about Rias true identity.

Or more precisely of Raynare´s.

But the real question was, did Sirzechs know as well?

What if Issei and Azazel were actually deceiving the Maou about the death of his sister? That would be just cruel. Especially given how much Sirzechs cared about her.

If they had been truly keeping this from him, it might cause new distrust to come up... or at least between Sirzechs and Azazel - maybe even their entire Factions - and possibly destroying the Alliance as a whole. Given how much Sirzechs had loved his little sister, there was no telling how he would react if they were truly deceiving him about this.

So Akeno and Koneko decided to keep their mouths shut... at least until they had found out more.

Not that she couldn´t have understood their reasoning, **if** they truly kept what happened from him, **especially** given Sirzechs love for Rias.

Love? Okay, some people might call it a full-blown sister-complex instead, she admitted to herself.

Sirzechs was one of the leaders of the Underworld, one of the Devil Kings... and having him distracted at times like this with news of his sister´s death, was something nobody needed.

Still, Akeno wished she knew for sure. Damn it.

She and Koneko had kept their eyes open for signs if anybody else knew what was going on. But the problem was that they had barely seen Sirzechs and the other Devil Kings in these last few weeks.

This entire situation was just crazy. If someone had told her this a month ago, she would have thought it was a very - very - bad joke.

Rias wasn´t Rias and...

... Rias was dead -gone.

The thought alone was still hard to comprehend for both her and the young Nekomata.

And a lot of other things had happened since then... good and bad things.

Well, as far as it concerned the two of them, it was mostly bad. Given the situation they were in.

One thing, however, she was sure about.

One way or the other, she and Koneko would confront Raynare about all this very soon... and most likely Issei as well.

A small smile started to form on Akeno´s lips.

There was also another thing that had changed during the last weeks.

Issei had now started to actually have sex with them.

The first two - by what she knew - had been Kuroka and... of all people Asia.

Who would have thought that their little Nun would have been one of the first to actually fuck him? she thought naughtily.

 **xxx**

After `it´ had happened and Rias had been `replaced´, for the next time nothing had happened between Issei and any of the other girls.

No wonder after what had happened, Akeno thought.

He must have needed time to deal with what had happened - with Rias loss. The loss that nobody besides him, Raynare, Azazel and maybe a few others even knew about... and now she and Koneko did as well.

But that didn´t cause him to tell them the truth, another part of her responded bitterly. Did he not trust them? Or had he just wanted to spare their feelings? But it should have been clear to him that they would find out sooner or later. Especially if Raynare didn´t want to stay in Rias body.

It was still hard to even wrap her mind around it. Rias, their friend, their Master, she was gone.

All that while her body was still walking around, talking to them, leading them. But it was no longer her. It was bizarre, it was nightmarish, it was... absurd.

Ironically, a part of her had to admit, Raynare was not even doing such a bad job. Of course, she had been a group leader in the Grigori before.

Yes, a team that **they** had wiped out, she remembered. The Fallen Angel had every reason to want to see them dead. But their team was still working. If she wanted she could have done something to send her, Koneko and Kiba to their deaths weeks ago.

This mysterious threat that she and Issei had mention must truly be a big vexation, Akeno said to herself, for her to cooperate with them like this.

 **xxx**

Well, back to the sex-topic. They had then continued about half a week ago.

The next girl Issei slept with had been Irina, who had come into his room in that night.

There had however also been a tragic side about this. They all had been shocked, to put it mildly, as Irina had presented herself to them with black wings.

She had claimed that it didn´t matter that much to her. But they all could see that it did.

Irina had looked sad, but she only responded something about that she `had been ripe to fall anyway´, whatever she meant by this.

She was now slowly adjusting to having Azazel as a direct superior instead of Michael. The leader of Heaven had told them that he was sad to loose her like this and that he is glad to have her still work as part of the DxD team. But she was a Fallen Angel now and would better fit into the Grigori than Heaven. Irina actually agreed and told them all that she would be happy as long she was with Issei.

They had technically - in fact, two Fallen Angels on their team now.

It was a good thing, that she had overcome her stupid hatred some time ago. Otherwise, she wouldn´t know how to feel now.

Irina was then closely followed by Xenovia and then once again by Kuroka... and Koneko, who had been keeping an eye on Issei and Raynare at that time, and just decided to join him and her sister for a threesome.

As Akeno had asked her later how it had been, she had only replied - "very good" - in her usual stoic manner.

The next had been Irina, Xenovia and Asia again. And from then on it was pretty much continuing in that matter.

Issei had also talked to Yuuto about the feelings that Tsubaki obviously had for him and actually encouraged him not to `miss this chance´. (Actually, it was Rias/Raynare, who had pointed this little fact out to him in the first place.)

Akeno knew that he was also doing it with Rias, a.k.a Raynare quite regulary.

And then the rest of the girls had wanted "their turn" too. She herself included, Akeno admitted. But she just couldn´t bring herself to do it. Not as long as she hadn´t confronted Issei about... this.

One funny thing was that Issei-kun was now actually `taking them on´ in groups of two or three at once... and all of them seemed to be completely okay with that. They had truly become just as perverted as Issei. Or in her own case, had been right from the start, she admitted to herself.

To think this, they are finally having fun as a harem... and she, the self proclaimed dominatrix, wasn´t in on it.

She would have actually liked nothing more than to `assist´ Issei by giving the other girls punishments for being so naughty. Right before receiving her own of course, for being the worst of them all.

The thought alone made her feel hot. They were truly a group of fucked-up people, Akeno admitted.

But whenever she thought about Rias, all her excitement was falling down into itself.

Rias - She would have killed Raynare herself weeks ago, even if it meant being declared a Stray Devil and executed. But by all what she heard from both her and Issei, it had not been the Fallen Angel who was responsible for what happened to her. She had merely taken advantage of the situation... and being a bodiless spirit at that time, Akeno could not even really blame her.

No, it was this wretched creature who had attacked Rias nearly two months ago. She had sworn to herself, she would find that monster and find a way to destroy it forever.

 **xxx**

Issei´s harem however had also gotten another, quite surprising, addition. She was far older than all of them.

In fact she was a many centuries old Devil from one of the pureblood families who had been away from the Underworld for a long time and only now returned. Lamia Belial was, as far as she had been told, a great-aunt or something of the current Head of House Diehauser. But of course, being a Devil, her appearance didn´t show that.

She looked like a very attractive woman in her early twenties.

They all had been shocked and surprised as she had made her interest in him known. Not that they - being Devils - had any real moral issues with it. And it wasn´t as if anyone of them had the right to judge.

Given the size of her breasts and her figure, Issei had of course instantly invited her into their harem.

At first Akeno had suspected that she might only be interested in Issei because of his status and fame. But to her surprise, their `new addition´ had actually been talking with him about his personal life, his feelings and his ideas and tried to get to know him personally.

She had not tried to reclaim her status as Head of House Belial, that she possessed centuries ago and instead left it to Diehauser and his heirs. Instead she had, to everyone´s surprise, actually offered to join DxD team, along with her Queen and help in the fight against Khaos Brigade.

She had also never tried to dominate the other harem-members - like Rias sometimes did, she admitted sourly to herself - and was okay with just being another of his mistresses. Quite unusual for such an old and powerful High Class Devil, she admitted.

But all that wasn´t the problem right now. Neither Issei´s newest relationship or Raynare were the topic right at this moment.

Right now they had a Rating Game to win, Akeno thought.

 **xxxxxxx**

 _Raynare´s Pov:_

It was in the capital of the Devil territory of the Underworld. They all were standing inside one of the greatest stadiums for Rating-Games that were currently in use.

And they were in front of a cheering audiance - mostly but not enterily consisting of Devils. There were also a few Fallen Angels, Youkai and other Shinto members and even a few representatives from Heaven present- that applauded their victory.

In short, it was a day in Hell - in the truest sense of the word - At least for one person.

To the outside-world, the audience - and for most others around her - she was Rias Gremory, Devil heiress of her family and one of the two governors of the town of Kuoh in the Human World.

At the inside however, her identity - her soul - was someone completely different.

Things had continued as they used to for all of them during the last few weeks, more or less. After all, unknown to most, one of their leaders had been `replaced´ with another person.

For the most others though, the day had so far had just been quite entertaining. The reason was that there had just been a quite interesting Rating Game been taking place, between the Peerages of the heiresses of the Houses Gremory... and Vassago, who was the one who had challenged the Gremory team to this match.

`Rias´ peerage - under the (secret) leadership of Raynare - had won quite easily in the end. But as it turned out, their win was something that their `leader´ was not exactly happy about.

In the moment the victorious peerage, together with their friend Irina, was on their way to leave the stadium where the game had taken place.

In fact, Raynare was furious. Not only because the entire fame for their victory was going in the name of Rias Gremory - a being that she, even now when she was gone, completely detested... it was also the fact that she had to spend the entire day, dealing with some of the most annoying Devils she had ever the bad luck to meet.

The girl who had been leading the other team was a prime contender.

As it turned out she had a grudge against Rias Gremory. And what infuriated Raynare even more was the blasted Devil´s reason for it.

"Are you okay?" Issei asked her, while they and the others were on their way outside. Both of them had taken a bit distance to the rest of the group. Most of the others didn´t paid much attention to it. They just assumed that he and Rias wanted a few minutes for themselves.

Akeno and Koneko however were paying attention to it. They knew the truth after all.

"Okay?" Rias (Raynare) responded. "Why should I not be okay? I have just won a fake battle in the name of Rias Gremory and have spent the day in the most `interesting company´ after all. I couldn´t be happier Ise-darling," she said sarcastically.

"And then this little bitch had actually the nerve to blame us - and kept going on about - the fact that `we´ have taken out Diodora and caused his pathetic House to be disgraced," she said, "- **him** of all people.

If I think about what this bastard had been trying to do I only wish I had killed him myself."

Issei grimaced a bit at her comment. He was the only one who understood the double meaning of her words. Stll he had to actually agree with her here.

 **xxx**

If some of their teammates overheard them, they should of course think that she was talking about Diodora Astaroth´s kidnapping of Asia, with the intention to turn her into a glorified sex-slave and finally nearly killing her with this hell-device he had trapped her into back then.

In truth, it was actually more the original plot of the Astaroth heir, that outraged her. First, he had intentionally got Asia excommunicated from the Church and then he had intentionally wanted to let Raynare remove Asia´s Sacred Gear, only to attack and kill her right afterwards... and then turn Asia into his servant, pretending to save her.

Raynare was still boiling from rage at the thought that this Devil scumbag had been trying to use her like this.

 **xxx**

Issei felt anger coming up inside him as well, as he thought back about Diodora and his actions.

The group had just arrived at the exit of the stadium.

And as it turned out, Raynare´s bad day was far from over.

Right at the entrance a small group of Devils was waiting for them.

If the Fallen Angel had thought she could never hate anyone as much as Rias Gremory...

... Well, that was before she ever had gotten to meet her family.

"Rias," she heard a - very pretty, young looking - female Devil greeting her in a happy tone. The woman was looking very similar to Rias, only with brown hair instead of red.

Raynare knew exactly who it was, Venelana Bael-Gremory, Rias mother. Her mother, as far as it came to everyone else here but Issei. And the man next to her was her husband and Rias father, Zeoticus, the current Duke of Gremory.

"Congratulations my dear," her `mother´ was saying. "You and your peerage did great."

"Like always," Zeoticus added smiling. "To be honest," he stated, "they seem actually stronger than ever before."

It became even worse, she realized - as the blasted female devil stepped even closer to her and draw her into a tight hug.

`Don´t touch me you filthy Devil!´ a part of her wanted to scream, but she barely held herself back. She had her role to play.

And besides that, Issei was technically a Devil as well... and he would certainly not appreciate it, if she reacted like that to them.

`I hate you. I hate you,´ Raynare repeated in her mind, while Venelana had her arms layed around her. `I hope you die a slow painful death you bitch,´ she thought. `I hope I get the chance to tell you some day what truly happened to your precious daughter and laugh about it,´she continued. `I... ´

`Why did that red haired Devil-bitch even had a family who cared about her this much?´ she asked herself.

`She had done nothing to deserve it. She had been nothing but a spoiled, two faced, corrupt...´

The next moment she had a picture flash through her mind of what had happened to the real Rias... and she had to cringe inside.

No, she would not feel bad for them, Raynare told herself.

"I am hardly the only one to praise," she stated aloud. "Issei-kun has done more for my peerage than anybody else after all."

"Of course Issei," Zeoticus stated. "Where would we all be without him?" he asked meaningful.

"Well, **I** for my part are pretty certain that I would be married off to Raiser and probably pregnant with some pureblood baby right now," Raynare/Rias replied with sarcasm and played bitterness.

"Rias - really, we thought we had left this matter behind us," Venelana said.

"What? That you had tried to sell me off to the highest bidder?" she stated. "Why should that bother me?"

"Rias..." her `mother´ started.

"It is Devil custom," Zeoticus reminded her casually.

"Which `our´ family was never so great in following anyway, right?" Raynare responded sarcastically, "unless of course it was in our own interest. Has onii-Sama ever followed Devil custom when he set up Issei-kun to fight Raiser for me?" she asked him.

"Have **I** been following it, when I was walking around on Church territory to spy on some secret project and ended up recruiting Kiba-kun?" she stated.

At the inside, however, she had to hold back her laughter.

 **Finally** , she thought - the chance to have some fun with these Devils.

In truth she didn´t give a damn if these two had been trying to force their daughter into a marriage with some other bastard.

Quite the opposite, she would have been happy if that Raiser guy had been fucking her hard in the ass every night.

But this was just too good of a chance to mess with them.

"`Rias´," Issei finally spoke up, "I think that is enough. You should really not talk with your parents like this."

Her expression flickered for only a split-second... before she smiled.

"Of course Issei-kun, you are right, I am being silly. I am sorry, Mother, Father. I shouldn´t have brought it up again."

Akeno on her side, had to hold herself back, as she saw the Fallen Angel in Rias body toying with her family like this. She was glad when Issei interferred. She had already wanted to say something herself, but she would have for sure not managed to do it this politely.

"Yes `Rias´... " they heard another voice coming from some distance.

As they turned around, they saw Sirzechs approaching through the corridors.

 **xxx**

 _Akeno´s Pov:_

At one point, she admitted, she had to suppress a giggle, as she saw Raynare being hugged by Venelana and complimented by both of her `parents´.

Most of them didn´t notice how obviously uncomfortable she was. Of course most of them didn´t know her real identity and had no reason to suspect anything being off.

At the same time however, she felt anger and sadness rising up inside her again, when she thought about what happened to Rias... the real Rias.

Especially after Raynare mentioned the past engagement with Raiser and acted as if she was still upset about it.

That bitch. Who gave her the right to toy with them like this?

Damn it. It felt as if she wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

She had to hold herself back from saying anything to the Fallen Angel that would have possibly revealed herself to her.

But then Issei stopped her instead.

 **xxx**

"Yes Rias," they heard Sirzechs addressing her a few moments later, who was approaching them through the room, "you should really leave it be, don´t you think so `sister´."

Raynare just nodded.

"You are right of course," she replied.

He was indeed right, the Fallen Angel realized. They had more important things to do.

"Mother, father, if you would excuse us for a moment?" Sirzechs addressed them. "Rias, Issei and I have something to discuss. It is a matter of the DxD team, you understand? It is not as if we don´t trust you with this information, but this topic is for team-members and Faction leaders only," he told them friendly.

"Of course," Zeoticus replied.

"How about you come this evening to dinner, Sirzechs, Rias?" Venelana asked them.

Sirzechs knew, Akeno realized. Or did he? The polite but distant way he spoke to her.

If he did, it certainly made matters less complicated, she thought.

She made her decision. She and Koneko would have a talk with both Issei and Raynare very soon. But before that...

 **xxxxxxx**

 _Kuoh_

As soon as they had separated from the others, she and Koneko were teleporting back to Kuoh Academy.

They were supposed to meet someone there.

During the last week, next to her usual duties and schoolwork, Akeno had also done something else. In fact she had done something that, as short time ago, she had never thought she would ever do.

She had approached a few people, one of them her father Baraquiel - the same father she had been mercilessly shunning for the last few years - and asked discretely for their help.

Beside him, however, she had also asked Michael, the leader of the Angels.

What she wanted was information - information about one thing.

She wanted to find the location of the Spirit Wraith.

 **xxx**

"Father," she greeted him.

The ten winged Fallen Angel leader had been waiting for them in their club-room.

"Akeno," he replied.

`He hadn´t been there.´ That had been her only real argument. As if it were even possible for a parent to be around their children all the time.

What did she expect? That he would be sitting around her 24 hours a day?

Even if he had been there at that time, the Himejimas would have just attacked another time. But she had been too self-centered to even realize that.

It had taken her the loss of another close person to wake up and finally face reality.

She had blamed her father because it was easy. Even worse, she had projected her hatred on the entire rest of his - no of their - race. She had been a coward. She had been a pathetic, despicable little person.

But that was over now.

"Father, before we begin, I wanted to tell you. I am sorry," she started, surprising Baraquiel. "I was a fool to blame you for mother´s death the whole time. You couldn´t even have been there all the time and... they had probably been simply waiting for a moment when you were gone and... It was just easy to blame you for everything and - and I was selfish and I was a coward and... I am sorry."

The Fallen Angel leader stared at her for a few moments.

"It is okay Akeno," he answered. "I don´t blame you for the way you reacted. The truth is, I blamed myself as well for a long time."

"I guess that makes us both idiots then, right father?" She giggled.

"But you are clearly the more hardheaded of us," he replied, chuckling as well.

"I guess I am," she said.

"Here is the information you asked for," he told her, returning to business and handing her a folder.

Akeno opened it and started to read.

"Reports about unusual supernatural activities that don´t go back to the three Factions or other known groups, detection of eruptions of energy over the planet, cases of unexplainable sicknesses under the human and Fallen Angel population, ghost sightings and other things," he stated. "Cases where the Churches had been asked for an exorcism. I am sure Michael can tell you more about this."

She nodded.

"Good."

"You are sure about this?" her father asked her.

"I have never been so sure," she answered. "I will find this thing."

"You know I will assist you," Baraquiel said. "But in exchange promise me one thing. Don´t do anything stupid. I don´t want to loose you as well. Not to that creature."

"I promise I will be careful," Akeno answered. "I will accept any assistence you want to give me. But I also promise that I will find this being and personally destroy it."

 **xxxxxxx**

 _Issei´s home - the evening of the next day  
_

"Yes, Ah - harder," the woman who was on his bed on her knees before moaned, as he was fucking her from behind and kneeding her large breasts at the same time. Her long blonde hair was falling wildly into her face, while they both were moving.

Both of them cried out as he came inside her a few moments later.

"You are incredible for such a young boy," Lamia stated, after they both calmed down. "I knew you wouldn´t disappoint me... in anything." She turned around and gave him a light kiss on the mouth.

Beside them was lying the naked sleeping form of Xenovia, who was the other girl with him for this night.

A few weeks ago, Issei would have thought this was paradise... but that was before they had lost Rias. He still loved them all... and loved doing it with them.

But he still felt the pain any time he couldn´t distract himself somehow.

"Are you okay?" Lamia asked him.

"Y-yes," Issei answered. "I have just been thinking about something." He made up an excuse.

"I see," she stated. "I guess you have much to deal with right now."

"You have no idea," he said.

In opposite to what he believed however, Lamia knew exactly what happened to Rias and who the current `Rias Gremory´ truly was - for good reason.

"Are you thinking about the meeting?" she asked him.

Issei nodded.

"I am," he answered

A meeting between leaders from the Three Faction, their allies and the members of the DxD team was taking place in two days from now.

"Don´t worry about it," she said to him. "I am sure it will all work out. You and the others had been beating these terrorists for months now, right? And now I am here with you as well."

"Yes, I shouldn´t worry," he said. But Khaos Brigade was no longer the only threat, he thought... and no longer the greatest one.

In opposite to the other girls, Lamia was also the only one, who downright told him that she would also be taking other lovers if she wanted to. Well, he was hardly in the position to complain about that, he thought. Not with him having an entire willing harem.

She had told him that right now, she had one other guy beside himself... a "very handsome and powerful Devil", as she called him, but she didn´t wanted to give him his name yet.

Lamia had also mentioned that he would also be at the conference and that she truly wanted to introduce them to each other. She wanted her `two men´ to get along with each other, she had told him.

She gave him a warm smile in this moment. But her thought's at the same time were all but innocent.

Yes, she could not await to introduce him to _Rivezim_.

* * *

 **Side-note: Irina has become a Fallen Angel in this story. The main reason however was not that she had sex with Issei, in opposite to what Akeno thought.  
**

 **Remember, everything what happened up to chapter 6/7 of Gods of Darkness, happened in this story as well. It was implied that she should had already fallen because of the strong feelings of anger and jealousy, she felt over the revelations about Rias and Raynare and that it was only Faust´s influence that kept that from happening.**

 **Here Faust had never erased hers and Issei´s memories after the incident and her feelings stayed more or less the same and overcame and turned her at some point. She had then kept the fact that she had turned into a Fallen for herself for a short while.  
**

 **Akeno however had no way to know that.**


	3. Chapter 3: Day of blood part I

**Chapter 3**

 _The Underworld, Devil teritory_

The day had come on that the next `Great Conference´ between the leaders of the three biblical Factions would take place.

Or, as you could also say, the next greater conference that was promoted in public.

Technically of course, the faction leaders were seeing each other all the times. Either at smaller or `inofficial´ meetings, where they were discussing their plans. On the battlefield itself, fighting their new - or old in cases of people like the Old Satan Faction for the Devils - common enemies from the Khaos Brigade.

 **xxx**

There was also the fact that there was an even more terrifying threat out there. But that was something that only a few - one of them the Fallen Angel leader Azazel - were aware of.

 **xxx**

This conference however would **officially** deal with the danger that Khaos Brigade represented to all three biblical Faction and also to the rest of the Supernatural World. For the entire Underworld to see and hear.

They could have of course just as easily held this meeting in secret, like they did so many others before. But the people of the Three Factions and the rest of the Supernatural world **should** see it. With that it was also meant to calm the citizens fears about the threat and show them that their leader´s were **doing** something about the problems.

So it **was** an important event.

But at the same time it was to some degree, what in the human world would be called an `publicity stunt´.

Unlike the Peace Meeting however, where it was an important point to hold it on more or less neutral ground (or as close to neutral as you could get under the Three Factions), this conference was not held in Kuoh or another part of Earth, but in the Underworld itself - right in the Capital of the Devil territory.

To be precise, it would be taking place in Sirzechs own residence, that he had offered for this purpose. This of course made the Devil Faction the official hosts of the meeting.

They were of course also aware that exactly all his also made the conference a potential major target for their enemies. So they had set up the tightest security possible... and the Maou themselves - all four of them combined - together with Azazel and the Seraphs, had personally warded the area.

And also an army of over six hundred Devils had been assembled - back up by a hundred Angels and Fallen Angel warriors each - to guard the meeting place, in addition to the Maos and their guests own peerages and guards.

All in all it was as secure as it was even possible.

Nobody of all of them could know yet how this days would end.

Nobody could have predicted the disaster that was going to come.

 **xxx**

The members of Rias Gremory´s peerage, along with their friends, the now Fallen Angel Irina Shidou and former Stray Devil Kuroka, had just arrived through a Magic Circle.

The meeting would start in a short time and they just entered the hall where it was taking place.

It was to the surprise of everyone present, except the ones who knew who `Rias´ truly was, that the first person she greeted, was not her brother Sirzechs or his Queen/wife Grayfia, but the Fallen Angel leader Azazel.

The Devil King however didn´t seem to care much about it, since he himself and Grayfia greeted his `sister´ friendly one moment later.

Nobody noticed that it was all just an act. Because the girl that had just arrived was not his sister at all, at least not at the inside.

But all that didn´t truly matter right now. Sirzechs had found out what happened to his real sister weeks ago. He had been devastated. But he was dealing with it, as good as he could.

He hated treating the Fallen who was inheriting her body as if they were actually family though... and he knew Raynare returned the feeling. She hated acting like Rias just as much as he hated **seeing** her acting at it.

Ironically, this actually seemed to be something they had in common.

He remembered for example how the Fallen Angel had reacted as she had been meeting his parents... and he nearly had to suppress a grin, that was then replace by another sting of pain, as he once again thought about what had happened to Rias.

He, just like Baraquiel did on Akeno´s behalf, had spend the last weeks using his resources to find the creature who was directly responsible for Rias death, the Wraith as they had called it.

He had promised himself silently one thing. That he would take revenge for his sister.

But there was the problem. How to find a being that had no body or permanent shape? How to locate something that existed mainly outside of the physical world?

And even more important, how to kill something like that?

The only way to even find it, both he and Baraquiel came slowly to realize, would be if the creature found itself another victim somewhere in the world. They had ordered their agents and contacts to look for cases of `demonic possession´ or similar phenomenons across the world, that showed similar symptoms like Rias did. But so far they had not found a clear sign.

Sirzechs calmed himself down. For now, he had his duties here to take care of.

 **xxx**

A few minutes later the conference had started. Everyone had taken their places, participants and guests alike, and Sirzechs was just announcing the beginning.

So far everything was going on just as planned.

The representants of the Factions - that meant the Maou Sirzechs, Ajuka and Serafall of the Devils, Azazel, Baraquiel and Vali Lucifer of the Grigori (while Vali also represented his own team), the Serafs Michael and Gabriel of Heaven and also Yasaka as the leader of the Kyoto Yokai with two aids, representants of the two Vampire factions... and Issei, in his role as the Red Dragon Emperor.

 **xxx**

Also present were Rias and Sona´s peerages, Irina, Kuroka, Ravel and Raiser Phenex and their parents, Zeoticus and Venelana Gremory, Sona´s parents and Lamia - who was technically carrying the title of a Princess - along with her peerage as well and a few others. That meant in the first line more representators of the other Devil Houses and of the other Factions and also the Underworld version of journalists. They all were however not sitting on the conference table itself, but in a line of seats for spectators at the other side of the room.

A couple of the Angels, who were acting as Michael´s and Gabriel´s guards, were for a moment sending Irina hostile glares as they saw her. One even looked at her with open disgust. It only lasted a split-second, but Irina noticed.

Michael had puplicy declared in Heaven that despite Irina´s fall, she was still considered as an respected ally and that - giving the special circumstances of her falling - she was not completely responsible for it.

But not all of the Angels seemed to be taking their leader´s word for it. Some believed that he was only trying to appease both the Fallen Faction and the Red Dragon Emperor - who was not only her close friend since childhood, but had recently also become her lover.

Irina tried not to let it show that the reactions of these Angels were actually hurting her. She had been proud of being an Angel, despite everything. Even if she knew that God was in fact long dead and Heaven and the Church were keeping up the lie that he still lived, even if she knew that people had been excommunicated just for knowing the truth.

Even knowing all this, despite knowing all these lies, she had still believed in God´s faith and his Church. And now, because of her own anger and bitterness, this was lost to her - no matter what Michael sai to build bridges between the Factions, she was not longer an Angel of Heaven or an accepted follower of God´s teachings... and never would be again.

The only consolation for this was that she could now actually be with Issei without hindrances. Still, she couldn´t help to wonder, silently, if that couldn´t have been somehow possible as well, if she had stayed an Angel - Maybe it would have been, she didn´t know.

 **xxx**

They were right now starting to discuss the danger Khaos Brigade and it´s various sub-faction were representing to their societies.

Yasaka for example brought up the attacks of the Hero Faction on the Kyoutou Yokai some time ago. To their luck - this group consisting of human Sacred Gear users, had been beaten back and severely crippled. It was something they had not at least, Lamia Belial and her peerage to thank for.

 **xxx**

The sudden return of the powerful Devil from the Belial Clan, who had sealed herself away together with her entire peerage centuries ago, had been a complete surprise, and in some cases a cause for worry, for the entire Underworld.

Lamia Belial was a Satan Class Devil - only behind the Maou in power and rivalling even her descendant Diehauser, the current Rating Game champion.

So she wasn´t actually one of the current generation or even of the younger Devils. She had been alive for many centuries in fact. Older than at least most of the current Devil Kings. She had been around in the Devil Civil-War... and before that, at least for the last phase of the Great War. Born during that time as the heiress of the Belial Clan.

But she herself had not been fighting in the Great War. No, she had been - in her own words - nothing but another spoiled and useless Devil heiress. And so others had been doing the actual fighting instead of her.

At least until the Civil War had directly attacked her family and forced her to join the battles by herself. Quite ironically though this led to her becoming one of the strongest Devils and with one of the strongest peerages

Lamia never made any attempt to hide her disdain for her former self.

Issei had a feeling that she wouldn´t have gotten along well with Rias if they had ever met... if they had the chance. Quite ironically however, she was going along quite well with Raynare, Irina and most of his other girls.

What had worried many Devils, especially under the old Clans, was how she would react to certain `events´ and changes in the Underworld.

The most prominent one was the questionable death of her grandniece Cleria Belial, who had been controlling Kuoh before Rias did, by the hands of her fellow Dvils. This was also the event that led to the rule of Kuoh being transfered from the Belial to the Gremory family. So Lamia had more than one reason to be hostily to some of the other Clans... and especially the older members.

To everyone´s relief however, she turned out to be more cooperative as expected. She declared her loyalty to the new Mao and accepted her grandnephew Diehauser as the Belial clanhead and stepped back from her own claim to the title.

She also seemed to have accepted the explanation that Cleria´s relationship with an Exorcist had been a danger to the stability of Devils society at that point and this was the reason for her death. That didn´t mean she liked it and she refused to directly work in any form with the Clans those members were suspected to be involved in the murder. But she didn´t declare a blood-feud either. And she accepted the Gremory´s claim to Kuoh, despite that it once belonged to her own family.

She had also nearly instantly joined the fight against Khaos Brigade when she heard about them and she and her peerage had been instrumental in disabling the Hero Faction and taking out three other smaller splinter factions.

There were however other matters where she was at odds with the current Devil state. The best example was her critizism and the open contempt she showed for the Evil Piece System, that most of the current Devils considered one of the best tools for the survival of their race. For Lamia however, it was an complete disgrace of what it meant to be a Devil.

Or as she called it: Not only was the Evil Piece System in his current form ´practically an invitation for any corrupt High Class Devil to turn and enslave other beings against their will.´

But she also claimed: `In the old times a Devil actually needed his intelligence, his strength and his cunning to win over and recruit servants. Today any high born idiot, no matter how incompetent, could just put an Evil Piece into someone´s body.´

Her own peerage actually consisted of full blooded Devils, who had sworn loyalty to her.

It didn´t take much to say that Lamia´s opinions were not exactly well liked in some circles. But with her great help against Khaos Brigade and some other enemies, she had won the trust of the Devil Kings and the people around them.

Another surprise had been her fast developing relationship with Issei Hyoudou, whose harem she had quickly joined. In most human societies, a relationship between a technically still underaged boy and a woman so much older than him, would have been considered not only perverse, but also illegal. But Devils had no such inhibitions.

Not to mention that Issei was a self-declared pervert anyway. A reputation that the girls he was with either not minded in the first place or stopped caring about a long time ago, given his positive attributes.

Okay, `fast developing relationship´ basically came down to:... she told the young boy she was interested, presented her breasts to him and in return Issei - with some assistance from his other girls - introduced her to the modern concept called dating.

But what do you expect? it was Issei Hyoudou we are talking about.

At least it had been like this in the beginning. After some time however, it became clear that their relationship had become more than just about her breast-size and her own interest in a powerful young boy.

Lamia actually turned out to be a great help in for him, and also some of the others, to come to terms with the loss of Rias. It had been good to have someone present who had not been emotionally involved. Who had not known Rias before - had not been her servant, or her enemy like Raynare... or felt betrayed by her like Irina or Asia. Hundreds of years of life experience and having already lived through an actual war before, didn´t hurt either.

She had helped them to understand both Rias and Raynare and see things from their point of view - to see why they did the things they had done - better than he had before.

So came it that the older Devil woman, who in opposite to Issei´s other girls downright stated to take another lover as well (not that Issei would have much room to complain here), had been accepted, not only by him, but also by the other members of his harem. Especially Irina, Asia and surprisingly Raynare, had grown quite close to her.

None of them would have expected how things would turn out.

 **xxx**

The conference continued.

For the Devils, it was the Old Satan Faction that had been the greatest problem for the longest time. But with the death of most of the descandants of the old Maou now, this group seems also to be mostly defeated.

There were however rumors about a new, till now unknown, sub-faction that was rising up. One those goals and members they knew mostly nothing about. It was quite worrisome, especially since this new group would be completely unpredictable.

 **xxx**

Azazel asked himself how all this people here and countless others across the Supernatural World would react if they knew that there might be an even far greater threat than the terror-organization they were talking about waiting somewhere.

But he had agreed with Sirzechs and Michael that revealing that information would only cause unnecessary panic. Especially since they actually ony possessed the information revealed by Raynare and Issei about it and they knew there was in the moment not really much they could do about it.

How to strike against - how to even react - to an enemy who moved outside their known realities?

What they knew however, was that **one** of their foes, who had **not** even been physically there, had managed to fight Sirzechs and Ddraig at the same time on the Spirit Plane. That alone should show much much of a threat **they** were.

 **xxx**

It was in this moment when it happened. They all nearly instantly sensed that someone had arrived. A number of large powers - very large powers - had somehow broken their security and passed their wards.

What unsettled them even more, was that these energies clearly came from multiple species. They could make out Devils, Yokai, a few Fallen Angels and others.

Given this set up of races and the fact that they were intruding into this conference in the first place, it was pretty obvious who their `visitors´ were, the same group that this entire event was about - Khaos Brigade.

But that should have been impossible. The four Maous, Azazel and Michael had formed the wards together. To break them and enter the place, someone had **in theory** to be stronger than all of them combined.

Unless... they had someone on the inside who helped them.

But who? It would not be the first time that Khaos Brigade had managed to infiltrate any of their Factions, by far not.

 **xxx**

The Devils, Angels and other beings present in the room were preparing themselves to fight. The guards and soldiers outside were doing the same thing.

"Grayfia," Sirzechs addressed his wife, "go to Milicas. I want you to protect him and get him out of here."

"You want me to leave?" she asked a bit irritated.

"Grayfia, I am here surrounded by Satans, Seraphs and dozens of High Class fighters alone in this room. And outside is our **army**. I know how strong you are beloved, but you are not needed here. But if someone could get to our son... I want you to guard him and bring him to safety if necessary."

"I understand," Grayfia said, seeing his point.

She formed a magic circle beneath herself and teleported away to the Gremory residence. For the time of the conference, she and Sirzechs had decided to bring Milicas to his grandparents, to take care of him. A wise decision as it turned out now.

They would not loose any more family, Sirzechs thought as he watched her leave. He would not let it happen.

"Come," he said to the others, making a gesture to them to come with him. "Let us see who has just arrived here."

"We will face them outside," Michael stated calmly as well.

Like they were told, the assembled groups of supernatural beings were leaving the room, to face whoever had managed to breach the security of their meeting-place.

As they arrived at the outside, they were met not only with the sight of their own troops outside, but also with the group of intruders who had been surrounded by these troops.

It was a line of beings they had not even in their wildest dreams, expected to see together.

They were surrounded by forty Devils and a dozen Angels and Fallen Angels, but none of them looked particular worried about this. No wonder, given who they were. Not even the arrival of Sirzechs and the other Mao and Seraphs seemed to really unsettle them.

Standing in front of the group, to the right, was a Devil. His hair was silver and - aside from the beard he was wearing - he had an unmistakable ressemblence to Vali. He was radiating a power that was nothing else than frightening.

All who knew the White Dragon Emperor personally realized who this man had to be - especially given the grim expression on Vali´s face as he saw him.

Rivezim Lucifer, the son of the former Devil King and Lilith

Right behind him were standing dozens of other weaker Devils, Magicians, Sacred Gear users and one or two Fallen Angels.

But it were the two beings standing in a line beside Rivezim, who were truly worrisome. They could barely believe that these two actually seem to be cooperating with him - or with each other.

All of the Faction leaders instantly recognized Hades, the Olympian God of Death. What the Hell was he doing here?... and in the company of rogue Devils from Khaos Brigade of all things?

But it was the creature standing in some distance to them both, that worried them even more. It was a grotescue looking being - an abomination - that seemed like a cross between a Fallen Angel and a Dragon - Samael, the eternal cursed `Snake of Eden´.

He was the one who had by the legend corrupted the first humans to sin and had then, as a punishment, transformed into a bizarre mixture of a Fallen Angel and a Dragon and sealed away for eternity by God.

But that wasn´t what truly made this creature dangerous. It was that his blood had been turned into a deadly poison for all sorts of Dragons.

That meant both Issei and Vali were in mortal danger by his presence. In fact Issei had already practically died by a small drop of his blood less than two months ago. It was only because of Great Red´s interference that he was even standing here right now.

How in the world was Samael free? Had Hades helped them to release him? Had the Greek God gone crazy?

They returned their attention back to the Devil in front of their line of enemies.

"You are Rivezim Lucifer," Sirzechs stated. "The Original Lucifer´s son."

"Very perceptive. Indeed I am," the Devil answered smiling. "I am happy to meet you face to face `Lord Lucifer´," he greeted him sarcastically.

"Grandfather!" the others heard Vali growling angrily.

Only a few of the people present knew about the terrible history between him and his relative. But the tone in his voice alone told them a lot.

"Are you here to challenge us for your father´s title Rivezim - like Katarea and the others have?" Sirzechs addressed him.

"No," the white haired Devil replied smugly. "Why would I want something so meaningless? I have far greater goals I want to achieve, than some obselete title in a society that is just a shadow of what it used to be," Rivezim said darkly. "

"You can keep it. To be honest, I wouldn´t **want** your title, even if you offered it to me on a silver plate. In fact," his face now showed a diabolical grin, "you can burn with it and your small pathetic kingdom very soon."

"We will see about that," Sirzechs responded.

it was in this moment however, that Vali could not longer control himself anymore... and ended the short stand-off with his attack.

"Grandfather, I will **kill** you," he shouted in sheer rage, activated his Balance Breaker Armor and blasted in full speed towards the Super Devil.

 **[Divide Divide.]** He tried to use Albion´s special powers on him, but somehow they seemed to have no effect.

But Rivezim only awaited him with a grin on his face.

He blocked the blast Vali send to him with a magic circle.

The White Dragon Emperor was still trying to use Divide on Rivezim, but he was still resisting it.

He caught Vali´s fist with his own as he tried to punch him... and then send his armored grandson with a backhand crashing through one of the walls of the mansion.

"Not bad Vali," he commented however, "maybe you are worthy of the name Lucifer after all."

"What the heck was that?" Issei asked loud as he saw what just happened to his rival.

"Yes, it is not like Vali to loose control like this," Sona stated.

"That is not what I mean. With his Balance Breaker, Vali should have been a good deal stronger than that."

"He is right," Kuroka mentioned. "Vali is usually stronger than this."

 **[It is true,]** Ddraig said to them, speaking from the Boosted Gear. **[Vali is somehow weakened... and I fear that is not everything. I sense some sort of force over all of us. It is as if something had drawn Vali´s powers from him.]**

"Like Albion´s own abilities?" Sirzechs asked now, having heard the conversation.

 **[Yes, but somehow different. But that is not everything. There seemed to be a few strange powers directed at you, of a sort I have never sensed before.]**

"I believe so too," Kuroka cut in, "in fact, I could feel some strange presence, just when Vali attacked him." It was nearly, Kuroka thought...

"Damn," Sirzechs whispered. "You have heard it," he said to Michael, Azazel, Ajuka and Serafall. "Be careful."

 **xxx**

"And you Hades, what are you doing here?" Azazel addressed him. "Have you sunken so low that you now allied yourself with Devils and rogues?" he asked him pointedly.

"Normally I would have killed a lower being like you for daring to talk to me like this," the god responded haughtily. "But I know for sure now that the world like you know it will come to an end soon and your pathetic `Factions´ will be wiped from existence - finally," he stated.

"And I have made a pact that will ensure my own survival in this new world," he added. Now a few of them could hear something like insecurity in his voice, even... fear.

But Hades was one of the strongest beings in this world - one of the top ten in fact. What could have managed to scare **him**?

"What the hell are you talking about?" Serafall asked him perplexed.

"There are powers out there that far surpass anything your little mind could imagine Serafall," Rivezim announced arrogantly. "And our feeble races are nothing before them. I was seeking to awaken one of them... But then I was contacted by another. And then I was offered a pact. But you don´t need to try to understand..." he declared...

"... All that you need to is to **die**."

With these words, Rivezim looked forward, somewhere between the assembled Devils.

In this moment something happened that shocked all of them even more.

 **xxx**

Suddenly and without any warning, a member of Sirzechs peerage - his Knight Souji - had a sword through his back.

And he was not the only one. Split seconds later his Bishop MacGregor was being struck down in the same manner. Closely followed by another High Class Devil and one of Michael´s guard, an eight winged Angel.

But it were not the enemies before them. The members of Lamia´s peerage were attacking the other Devils.

But it was not only her peerage. She herself had moved as well. Before anybody could stop her or even react, she had moved right next to the present members of the Phenex Family.

The Phenex Clan was feared and respected because of their regeneration. But her own Power of `Worthlessness´ made it meaningless.

Raiser was the first to react... and the first to die by her hand. She fired a blast of concentrated energy, powerful enough to rip through his body and kill him instantly, with his regeneration being negated by her power.

He was closelely followed by his father, who got a sword stabbed through his back by one of Lamia´s Pawns, who had suddenly appeared behind him.

That only left Ravel and her mother present, who could only starre in silent horror at the sight of their son and husband/brother and father being struck down so easily.

Nobody had been able to prevent this, simply because nobody had seen it coming it.

"What have you done?" Lady Phenex screamed painfully.

"Lamia...!" Issei as well could only look at her in absolute shock about what just happened.

The Maou and the others present were feeling not much different. But for none of them it was as bad as for Issei Hyoudou.

What just happened here was a complete disgrace to the Underworld and a heavy blow at the same time.

Two members of the peerage of a Maou, the Head of a powerful Noble House and his third heir... another powerful Devil and an ally, wiped out in less than a second - not in battle, but during a `Peace Meeting´... attacked from behind by who they had thought were their allies.

How did this happen? Why did this happen?

"Lady Belial - what the hell are you doing?" the Maou Ajuka shouted at her enraged.

She only smiled at him wickedly in return.

In the same moment Rivezim formed a blast of energy in his right hand and fired it at the other two super Devils. Sirzechs blocked it easily with a magic circle he formed before them.

But with this the battle had begun.

"So you have joined Khaos Brigade," Ajuka growled at Lamia.

She actually giggled a bit at his statement.

"Actually no." Lamia questioned sardonically. "Me and his group have merely formed an alliance, but I am not a member. No, I am actually a servant of a completely different force. It seems my dear Rivezim is completely right. You lack imagination. And they really call you a genius?" she stated grinning.

"So all the help you have given to us against the sup-groups of Khaos Brigade?" Sirzechs questioned.

"I have only helped to remove my dear Rivezim´s competition," she confirmed. "With most other sub-faction either wrecked or weakened, his own group Quilloth could become the dominant force inside the entire organization. That it also helped me to win the trust of you naive fools was a bonus."

"I see," Sirzechs replied bitterly.

"Issei-kun," Lamia turned to him. "I had promised you to introduce you to my other lover, didn´t I?" She gestured to the white haired Super Devil. "Rivezim Lucifer, son of the late Devil King - and like they said, the new supreme leader of Khaos Brigade."

Every word she said only felt like another slap into Issei´s face. It was happening again, he thought. It was happening again.

Lamia´s other Knight swung his weapon and cut the arm of one of the Angels. On the first look it was only a relatively harmless injury. But the Angel sank to his knees and a moment later fell to the ground, dead.

Irina, who had seen this from some distance while she was fighting a couple of terrorists, noticed somewhere in her mind that it was the same Angel who had looked at her as if she was scum... and she couldn´t feel all to bad about his demise. At the same time she felt shame for her own feelings.

"What the...?" Sirzechs said. He had seen it as well.

At the same time, a group of ten Devils, half of them High Class, had surrounded Samael. It looked as if they had him cornered. But then, something happened - the Maou and a few of the others could feel a strange power radiating from the abomination - and the Devils just fell down dieing. Their bodies were looking somehow damaged from the inside out, as if it was a strange sickness or radiation poisening that had killed them.

"It is Samael," Ajuka said, "they must have somehow made him even more deadly. Ddraig was right, they have even more powers we are not aware of."

"Yes, that is so true," Rivezim told them mockingly, "we all have reached far more power than before. If only you knew what you are facing."

"And what exactly are we?" Azazel asked.

"If you truly need to know that badly. I - or better said we - have made a pact with a force greater than our world. We are now, as you can call it, enforcers of fate itself. You can call us the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

"You are kidding," Sirzechs said.

"Do our powers seem like a joke?" Rivezim replied.

While this happened, more and more invaders where at the same time appearing at several places in the Underworld capital, more rogue Devil, groups of human Magicians and also Grim Reapers from Hades domain.

They were enganging the defending Devil troops and in some cases even civilians were being cut down without mercy.

 **xxx**

The battle had now fully started.

Sirzechs and Michael were fighting Hades. Ajuka and Vali were facing Rivezim. Azazel was fighting with Samael - the armor of his artificial Sacred Gear was protecting him from the deadly effect of his new powers, at least to some degree - his own light power was doing the rest.

Gabriel was fighting Lamia´s Queen, a red haired woman named Taria, whose powers were bordering on Satan-Class herself. Serafall was was one of her Knights and one Rook.

The problem was that neither of them was at full strength. The strange power that was draining their energy was still in effect. And not only that. Like with Vali earlier, they had the problem that some of their troops from time to time were loosing control of themselves and attacking blindly.

The members of Rias and Sona´s peerages, Kuroka, as well as the surviving members of the Phenex Family and her present servants, were fighting off others of the attackers.

Falbion Asmodeus, the only one of the Mao who had not been present in person, had already been informed and was alarming the rest of the forces of the Devil Faction.

 **xxx**

Only Issei was still standing at the same spot he had been before, too shocked, hurt and unsettled to his very core to even move.

In a short distance around him were standing Rias/Raynare, Irina, Asia, Kuroka, Akeno and Xenovia, who were fighting off enemies who were coming too close to him.

Had he been anyone else, he would have probably been able to deal with this. But for him, it was his worst nightmare come true.

One of his lovers had betrayed him, again.

Why did this keep happening to him? What had he done to deserve this?

"Why...?" he whispered.

It was happening again, it shot through his head.

 _"Will you die for me?"_ he heard Raynare´s voice.

 _"Would you like to be my servant?"_ he heard Rias friendly tone.

 _"... she had known the entire time. She wanted me to kill you..."_ , Raynare´s voice added. _"Your `beloved Rias treated you like cannon-fodder._

 _"Akeno, Koneko, Kiba, they all left you to die at her order."_

 _"I am sorry. I am sorry. I love you. I love you so much. Please don´t let me die," the voices of Rias and Raynare shouted at him together inside his mind. He couldn´t even tell which was which anymore._

`Stop it,´ he thought desperately. `Stop it.´

"Issei," Raynare - the real Raynare - shouted at him with Rias voice. "Come back to your senses, please. We need you here." She said this as she used Rias Power of Destruction to force back a group of attackers.

Damn it, she knew what was going on with him. It was her who had caused this in the first place. Some of the other girls like Rias Gremory and her `peerage of bitches´ had maybe made it worse... but it had been her own deception and betrayal that had started it. And at the moment she hated herself for it.

"Issei-kun, please," Asia, who was standing the closest to him, pleaded as well, "I know this is terrible - that this happens **again**. But we need you."

"Issei-kun, we need your help," Akeno called out as well. She as well realized what was going on with him.

He heard them all. But it still wasn´t enough.

Lamia - why was she doing this? a part of him asked himself.

`Because she was on **their** side. Because she was their enemy -she had been the entire time,´ another one answered bitterly.

`Why did this keep happening to me?´ he asked himself. `First Raynare, then Rias and her peerage... and now **her**.

 **[Enough,]** Ddraig´s voice now boomed though his mind. **[One member of your harem has betrayed you again. I feel your pain about it. Even if it was one you have not known for that long. But you still have to protect all the others. There is a battle going on.]**

`Yes, I know,´ Issei replied mentally.

"Issei-kun," he heard her voice. One moment later he realized that Lamia was **truly** standing right before him.

"You - you damned bitch," Akeno hissed at the Devil, who had just appeared in front of them. "How could you do this to him? You knew how hurt Issei already were."

Lamia raised one of her hands... and suddenly Akeno felt how not only her lightning powers seemed to have suddenly disappeared, but also how her own strength was literally drawn out of her. She felt as if she could barely stand on her own legs.

"Silence. I don´t need to expalin myself to a pathetic bigotted little brat, who spend her half life blaming the **entire** Fallen Angel race for the fact that her Daddy was not around when **humans** decided to attack her mother. There is only one person here who I own an explanation."

Akeno glared at her in anger.

"Lamia, stop this," Issei now shouted at her. He was ashamed now of the way he acted a moment ago. They were right, they were in a battle and they **needed** him.

"Issei-kun," Lamia turned back to him.

"You..." he whispered. "You have been on their side the entire time. You have been playing us all - you have been playing me."

`Why do I keep falling for women like you so easily?´ he asked himself silently.

Strange, a part of him thought. It didn´t hurt quite as much as the betrayals of Raynare or Rias. Maybe, he admitted to himself, he had somehow forced himself unconsciously to keep greater emotionally distance, without even realizing. Or maybe you could say he had jsut matured.

But what happened still hurt like a bitch.

"Issei-kun, I know you must feel now as if you are living your worst nightmare," Lamia countered. "You have told me about your fears after all." She was talking to him in a friendly tone, as if her allies were **not** trying to kill them all in this very second.

"But try to see beyond your own hurt feelings for a minute. "I am not your enemy - I don´t need to be... if you don´t want to. I am merely an enemy of the Devils, the same Devils who turned you into their slave without ever asking you, who left you to **die** by Raynare´s hands only to resurrect you as one of them.

I am not your enemy, I am **theirs**. I know it is hard for you to believe me that right now, but I am not doing this to hurt or betray you. I am doing it to save you, to free you.

I am not Rias - who loved you, but only under the condition that you were beneath her. Or Raynare, who had been convinced by someone that you needed to die for the `greater good´, before she even got to know you."

"Don´t listen to her Issei, she is crazy," Akeno called out.

"Akeno is right," `Rias´ exclaimed as well. "This is insanity... and she of all people has no right to bring up Raynare or Rias."

She realized she had made a mistake, as the other girls were looking at her strangely, as she was talking in the third person. All except Akeno, who already knew the truth.

Damn it, Raynare thought.

"Issei, despite all this here, I love you," Lamia continued. "But in opposite to this other girls here, I don´t love the boy you are now. I love the man you **could** be, if only you would stand up and free yourself from the ones who have **truly** betrayed you. The ones who have been holding you in servitude, in slavery, the entire time.

But maybe I am not the only one who feels like this." She turned around. "After all, you were also not so impressed by him when you met him the first time, right Raynare-chan?" she addressed her.

She knew, the Fallen Angel in Rias body thought shocked. How did she? Of course, she and Rivezim had been talking about a `higher force´. It was completely obvious who she had to be working for.

The other girls were now starring at `Rias´ in complete bewilderment about Lamia calling her by that name, once again all of them except Akeno.

The Fallen Angel however realized that there was not really a point in hiding her identity anymore.

Like to proof Lamia right, her eyes suddenly flashed from blue to deep violet and her currently six Devil wings were starting to show a shadow of black feathers.

* * *

 **This chapter had actually been supposed to be finished one weak ago, but I had been sick for a few days around last weekend.**

 ** **This chapter also had some references to the first Arc of GoD.****

 ** **Like the title suggests, the battle will continue in the next chapter.****

 **The events are still basically a AU to Gods of Darkness (It is Au, even in universe, since it is part of an multiple world story). But the changes are starting to show more and more effect. Like the character Lamia feigning to be on the Devils side for far longer and actually joining Issei´s harem.  
**

 **The group of the `Four Horsemen´ is being introduced once again, only with Rivezim and Hades taking the places of Loki and Kokabiel.**

 **One main difference is of course also that this version of the events happen before Rivezim´s attempt to awake Trihexa - that will possibly be addressed in the story later -, instead afterwards.**


	4. Chapter 4: Day of blood part II

**Chapter 4**

 _Underworld_

The entire Devil Capital of Lilith and the surrounding area had by now turned into a battlefield.

It was, quite literally, a picture of hell. A combined force of Khaos Brigade Devils, Hades minions and human Magicians and Sacred Gear users was invading the town.

The attackers were brutal and made no real difference between warriors and civilians. Hundreds were already dead. Countless were about to follow them.

The members of the Occult Research Club and in first line Issei were horrified at what they were seeing... especially given who it was who was ultimately responsible for the massacre. While most of the attackers were actually members of Khaos Brigade or followers of Hades, the one who had allowed them entrance into the heart of the Underworld in the first place... was nobody else than Lamia Belial, one of their supposed allies.

Another shock had been, just a minute ago, the revelation who `Rias´ really was... At least to the ones under them who hadn´t already known it yet. Some of them, like Kiba, felt as if their world had suddenly turned upside-down. Rias had been his Master and friend for years now... and now he found out that she was dead... and had been replaced by an imposter weeks ago. He knew enough about the battle on the Spirit Plane to figure out what must have happened.

But right now, if they were honest, it made little difference. Since right now, they were all stuck in this situation together. It was either fight together or die on your own.

 **xxx**

Sirzechs, Grayfia and the other Satans, Azazel and Michael were still involved in fights with Hades, Samael, Euclid Lucifuge and several other powerful members of Khaos Brigade, Lamia´s peerage or Hades minions.

 **xxx**

And right here, with the battle raging on everywhere around them, a small special group of people were still standing there, facing each other.

This meant on one side Issei, with two remaining girls flanking him... and on the other Lamia - a powerful Devil back from the time of the Great War... and also the newest addition of his harem... and was trying to deal with the revelation of her nearly unbelievable betrayal. But in this case it was a betrayal that not only concerned him, but the entire Devil Faction as a whole. Maybe the entire world if what Issei suspected was correct.

"You-... You are working for **them** , aren´t you?" Issei asked. "You are working for Faust and his allies."

She actually smiled at him in return.

"You can be very smart, if you only actually try to Issei-kun," Lamia replied.

The two girls still standing next to him were Xenovia and Asia, who were still trying to protect him... and at the same time trying to get him to get back a hold on himself.

The rest of them had been forced into fights with others.

 **xxx**

Kuroka was facing one of Lamia´s Bishops, Akeno and Irina one of her Knights... Kiba, Koneko and Rossweisse in some greater distance a group of Hades minions.

Raynare - still in Rias body - had been attacked by another of Lamia´s Servants and driven away as well.

During the last months, she had grown more powerful... far more. In first line by slowly absorbing parts of Ddraig´s energy over the time. Even if she might not be in her original body and her Fallen Angel essence had problems matching with a Devil´s body. But on the other side she was now able to use Rias Power of Destruction.

And right now, she was furious. She had wanted to protect Issei just as much as the other ones. Maybe even more. Because she knew it had been her who had caused Issei´s messed up state in the first place.

But by now she regretted it deeply and wanted to make up for it. But instead of actually helping Issei, she had to deal with this idiot here.

She couldn´t care less what will happen to the rest ot the Gremory peerage or most of the other Devils here. The only exception was Asia Argento. Raynare admitted she felt bad about what she had done to her and felt the need to make it up to the former Nun.

The rest of the however? They could all burn in hell if it came to her.

But she did care what happened to her fellow Fallen Angels.

So right now she let out her anger at the Devil who had been attacking her. As soon as she had beaten him, she would go to help Issei... and destroy everyone who got in her way of doing it.

 **xxx**

"Issei-kun, I - I know this must be hard for you... but please, you need to concentrate on the battle or you will be killed," Asia shouted at him.

 **[She is right,]** he heard Ddraig´s voice. **[I am telling you this the whole time. The others have been covering for you and putting themselves in even greater danger.]**

She was right, Issei knew perfectly well - she and Ddraig both. He felt miserable.

He had been endangering himself... himself and others. He acted like a fool.

He had thought he had gotten over his trauma after he had faced Raynare on the Spirit Plane. But obviously he had not.

 **[This is not alone your fault,]** the Dragon stated. **[One of the enemies has the power to influence emotions. I think it is Vali´s grandfather. Do you remember how Vali had completely lost control of himself when he was faced with him?]**

Yes. Issei remembered how incredible angry he had suddenly for a short moment as he saw the damage the attackers had caused. Only to fall into a deep depression when Lamia had revealed her true colors.

And it seemed he was not the only one.

As he looked around he realized that many of his allies were fighting completely uncoordinated.

Issei´s eyes were still locked on Lamia in front of him. But instead of thinking of his own pain and fears, he was now concentrating on her movements. She was an enemy, he started to accept, a incredible dangerous one.

Lamia´s words were halling through Issei´s mind - words that once again were cutting into a still open wound.

Who could he trust? Who could he truly...? After all what happened.

Raynare had said she was sorry. More than once. The others had said the same thing.

But...

He himself was barely better, he remembered. All the stupid and looking back needless, risks he had taken. All the things he should have seen, but had willfully ignored.

But her...? No, he thought. He was looking around at the chaos her allies were causing.

His mind was trembling. He could barely accept what was going on before him.

"I know what you are thinking," Lamia told him softly. "But this needs to happen."

"Needs to?" he replied darkly. "How is **this** needed?" he shouted at her, gesturing to the ongoing battle, the carnage, the burning town, the dead bodies.

"It is for a better world," she said.

She was working for Faust, Issei remembered. He had heard this from her own mouth.

He remembered. It was him who had send the Wraith after Rias. The Wraith who had tormented her for days and then literally sucked out her soul.

He remembered seeing her empty emotionless body. He remembered how much the sight had hurt him, despite having found out about her betrayal.

But that was not everything. By far not.

He might not recall the scenes of the memories he had inherited from Raynare quite clearly. But it was enough to remember the scenes of Faust sitting on a makeshift throne over the endless wasteland of a destroyed world - of obliterated cities and fields filled with rubble and bleached bones. Of the skeletons of nameless alien creatures hanging from the broken walls of the ruins.

Issei knew that he fucked up many times, made horrible mistakes. But at least he was trying.

If Lamia was an ally of this being, he decided... then he would never be one of her.

"No," he said loud. "I will never accept this. I know who you are working for and I won´t help you."

"You know you say?" Lamia responded drily. "Oh my dear foolish stupid sweet boy... you know nothing - nothing at all. But if that is your choice... then I will accept it!" she suddenly called out.

Her move came nearly instantly.

Issei realized that he had underestimated the full extent of her power, as he felt how his, or rather Ddraig´s, energy was drained out of him.

He tried to compensate for that by boosting a few more times. But Lamia´s ability was still slowing him down a great deal.

He prepared himself for an attack coming from her - from the front. What then truly happened however, was something quite different.

 **xxx**

In some distance away, Rivezim was still fighting with the Maou Ajuka Beelzebub and his own grandson Vali.

Normally Ajuka alone would rival him in strength... at least if it were not for Lamia´s special ability to draw energy from their opponents and absorb it into herself... and also the new powers they had gained through the deal they had made with her.

During this however, Rivezim gave a short nod to Hades... and then he send out a message to a small remaining group of three of his underlings. These three however were not here, involved in the battle, but waiting in some distance outside of the city. Just like he had intended.

The message only consisted of one single word: _"Beginn."_

And they reacted just a moment later and teleported right in the center of the battlefield. To the place where they could sense the power of the Red Dragon Emperor.

... And both of them attacked instantly.

They both appeared just a few meters away from Issei. Both of them were charging up magical attacks... and they both were holding swords poisoned by Samael´s blood in their hands.

Issei reacted instantly. He might have been emotionally distressed at the moment. And, as some might have said, a bit foolish to let himself get distracted by it in the first place.

But he wasn´t incompetent when it came to fighting.

He instantly changed into his Balance Breaker form and turned around to the attackers.

"Damn it," Issei hissed. They had nearly got him here.

Lamia however seemed similar surprised as well.

"What do you think you are you doing?" she called out as she saw the actions of her two supposed allies. This had not been part of the plan. At least not the parts of the plan she was aware of. What she didn´t knew was that some of her allies had slightly different ideas.

 **xxx**

Issei however completely vaporized one of the two attacking Khaos Brigade Devils just with a large outburst of raw power.

But his was actually not different from what Rivezim had expected. In fact he had planned for all this beforehand.

Now Xenovia moved as well. She sprinted forward to meet the second attacker with her Exalibur ready to strike. Their swords met. The Devil however was no match for the power of Xenovia´s Excalibur Destruction and with a second swing, was cut down as well.

But this two was only something that Rivezim had expected. In reality this two had only been pawns - cannon fodder... and more.

During the entire battle, both he and Lamia had been using the new powers they had been given. While Lamia was constantly draining all enemies in her reach of their powers and him distracting them mentally by boosting their aggressions and sending their minds constantly on the edge.

But another power, perhaps the most disturbing and powerful of them all, had not even been used yet - the one given to Hades... as it was fitting for him, the power of Death.

The Greek God of the Underworld reacted to Rivezim´s signal a few moments earlier.

And then suddenly, to everyone´s complete shock, the corpses of the fallen Devils, Angels, Fallen and Khaos Brigade members were suddenly standing up again.

Sirzechs was nearly instantly surrounded by a half dozen undead opponents. Two of them used to be members of his own guards. Ajuka and Vali were barely in a better situation. Of course given their power, this barely made a difference. They would be able to wipe them out in seconds. But these few seconds were already enough to give Rivezim and Hades a small opening.

Rivezim landed a hard blow on Vali, that send his already weakened grandson crashing into a building. His Balance Breaker Armor disappeared and he seemed to have taken some injuries.

Everywhere the course of the battle was suddenly turning around as from one moment to the other the dead were rising and fighting at the side of Khaos Brigade. And at the same time the defenders of the city seemed overcome in shock and surprise.

 **xxx**

Another dead body that awakened was the one lying right next to Xenovia. Like most of the others, she was completely shocked. She could barely believe what she was seeing. And so she froze for just a split-second.

And exactly this split-second turned out to be a deadly mistake... as the reanimated corpse stabbed his poisoned blade into her body.

"Xenovia!" Issei called out. This was it. His personal nightmare was continuing. First one of his harem turned on him... now one of them was dieing before his eyes... again.

He run forward. But before he had any chance to reach her, he himself was hit in his back by a giant globe of fire, send by nobody else than Hades. Still suffering from being drained by Lamia, Issei was hurt badly. His Scale Armor broke and disappeared nearly instantly.

A terrible scream halled over the place as his body was burned - coming from both Issei and Ddraig from the Boosted Gear. Flames filled the air and after a few seconds, all was left was Issei´s kneeling and badly wounded form. He was trying to move, trying to stand up. But it was in vain.

A split-second later he was hit by a second attack. This one coming from Rivezim himself. It hit him frontally and just as quickly consumed his already broken body.

Around them, they all watched in horror as their friend and ally (and in some cases lover) was burned to ash.

Asia was starring silent with an open mouth and tears in her eyes. She just wanted to scream out her pain and anger.

Her first friend and man she loved was gone... once again. For the third time. This time there was no body left to resurrect. And Great Red seemed to be nowhere close by to bring back his soul in a new one.

This time it looked like he was truly gone. They could not expect yet another miracle.

Somewhere in her mind Asia realized that she was now left alone standing in front of Lamia and that she could easily kill her. Another part of herself asked if she could even bring herself to care anymore.

But to her `luck´, it seemed that the female Devil had other things on her mind than dealing with her.

 **xxx**

The other remaining girls were faring barely better. Irina, Akeno, Rossweisse and Koneko were throwing themselves at their opponents even harder in their grief.

Akeno was feeling as if her world broke apart. First Rias... and now Issei-kun and Xenovia as well. In this moment she wanted nothing more than to kill every single one of this bastards that came into her way.

Raynare was overcome with anger as well. Once again she had seen Issei die - and this time it was never her intention or her wish. Quite the opposite. She admitted to herself a long time ago that her fake feelings had become real and that she had **truly** fallen for him. In her anger she annihilated two more Khaos Brigade warriors, using a combination of Rias powers and her own.

Sirzechs was now as well also going to the offensive again and was attacking Hades in silent rage at what had happened.

Even Lamia was shocked. This was not what she had wanted. Or what she and Rizezim had agreed to. She didn´t want Issei dead, she wanted him on her side. Rivezim, he had tricked her, she realized. He had fucking used her.

 **xxx**

"It seems the boy has made a unwise choice," Rivezim commented coldly, as he was looking down at the place Issei had been standing.

He unleashed his power and washed so another wave of destruction through the town. Lines of building were flattened, several Devils - most of the civilians - caught in the blast and burned to ash.

"Unwise?" Lamia shouted at him. "Rivezim - what have you done? This was not what we have agreed to."

"Now, the boy has refused, haven´t he?" he replied. "I know you have some sentimental attachment to him. But you know perfectly well how dangerous he was if we allowed him to live as our enemy. And this was the perfect opportunity to catch him off-guard. If he had agreed to join us, he would still be alive."

"Do you think I am dumb?" she hissed. "You had been planning this from the beginning. You have played me."

"Oh - and you are the only one who is allowed to do that to others? Is it that my dear?" he asked her sarcastically.

In this moment she barely held herself back from attacking him. But she knew that was the most stupid thing she could do. They were in the middle of a battle after all.

"Look around," he told her. "You said it yourself, Issei Hyoudou was a key figure under our enemies. His death had somehow thrown them into even greater disarray."

She saw that he was right.

"We have now the chance to cause **real** damage to them, with our combined powers," Rivezim stated. "Unless of course you think the life of a boy who had just rejected you is more important?" he said smugly. "Do you truly want to fight me darling - at a moment like this?"

She was still starring at him angrily for a few more moments. Then she finally gave in. He was right. But that didn´t mean she would forget this.

The battle continued for another half hour. In the end the attackers retreated, when more and more forces from other parts of the Underworld arrived. But only at the cost of the town´s center and a great part of the neighboring districts, that had been nearly completely devastated... and thousands of lives.

It was a black days, not only for the Devils, but for the Faction Alliance as a whole.

 **xxxxxxx**

 _Kuoh_

Three days had passed since the completely unexpected battle and it´s disastrous outcome.

The conference and every political decision connected with it, had of course come to a complete hold. Instead all Three Factions - in first line the Devils, who had taken by far the worst damage - were still occupied with fully assessing their losses - and in the Devil´s case, the destruction in their capital.

A great part of the central area of the town Lilith had been devastated during the battle. Of course most of the damage was able to be repaired with magic. It cost a great deal of energy, but the town was being restored to how it had been before.

The losses of life however could not be replaced.

Far over a thousand Devils had been killed - Devils alone - most of them civilians. But also many warriors, pureblooded and reincarnated ones alike. Under them the Red Dragon Emperor, Raiser Phenex and over a dozen members of other noble families

But the Devils were not the only ones who had taken losses. While they had logically been hit the worst, since it was their capital where the battle took place, it didn´t mean the others didn´t have casualities as well.

Both the Angels and the Fallen Angels had each lost nearly a hundred warriors. To that came two members of the Yokai and one of the Vampire Faction, who had been part of their contingents at the conference.

If the events had proven one thing more than clearly, than the fact that this new Faction of Khaos Brigade was a threat. A greater one than any of them had ever imagined.

Especially and even more with the new group of allies they possessed. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, they called themselves - and under their membersbeing Hades - the Greek God of Death and the cursed Serpent Samael.

Azazel and Sirzechs however were convinced that they were also connected to the new enemy Raynare and Issei had warned them about.

Asia´s testimony had confirmed this, as she told them in a broken state about Lamia admitting of working for `Faust´ and his associates.

Sirzechs remembered this as the name of the being he and Ddraig had fought on the Spirit Plane when they were trying to save Rias. And from the report Raynare had given them from the time she had been a bodiless spirit.

That mean this new threat had now allied not only with Khaos Brigade, but also with Hades. That and Issei was dead - he and so many others.

And to all that, Sirzechs knew, came the fact that the Spirit Wraith was still out there, somewhere i their world, possibly targeting other victims. He was nearly boiling over from anger at the fact that his beloved sister´s murderer was still at large and he could do nothing about it, since he had his hands bound with all of this.

Sure, they had send out agents to locate the creature, but if he was honest, he wanted to do nothing more than to go out there and hunt down and destroy this monster by himself.

But he could not. Not with the threat they were facing. If their now allied enemies could hit the Devils like that, then they would most likely move again very soon, probably targeting the other Factions as well.

For that reason he had gladly accepted Akeno´s offer that she had given him and his parents a day ago.

 **xxx**

While all of this was going on of the greater scale of things however, the now former members of Rias Gremory´s peerage and the people around them, had other things on their minds right now. Of course they understood the importance of the events. But what mattered most for them right now were their own losses.

Issei and Xenovia were dead. And this time it looked like neither Great Red or some other powerful being was going to bring any of them back.

Not only that, they had to find out that Rias was gone as well - had been gone for weeks now - and that and that an impostor had taken her place.

And that Issei, Sirzechs and Azazel, all of them, had known the entire time and said **nothing** to them.

Zeoticus and Venelana Gremory had also been both devastated to find out about Rias and visible angry at Sirzechs over this. Their son tried to explain to them that he just didn´t knew how to tell them about what happened. The truth was he had barely been able to deal with it himself.

The others could still barely grasp it. It was just too much. None of them were sure what to do or how to deal with this.

 **xxxxxxx**

 _The human world - Kuoh Academy_

Meanwhile, the students of Kuoh - both regular humans and supernatural ones - were dealing with the situation on their own. The part of the situation they were aware of, of course.

As far as they knew two of their fellow students - Issei Hyoudou and Xenovia Quarta - had been killed by a traffic accident. I was a tragedy, sure. But still it was still nothing compared to what truly happened.

Akeno, Koneko and Kiba were in this moment sitting together in their club-room. But none of them knew quite well what to say.

While Rias peerage had by now been officially dissolved and Rias former Servants officialy given to her parents, the Occult Research Club had technically not been - yet. Even if it was in name only.

The so called `leader´ of their club of course didn´t care about this at all. Quite the opposite.

As the dissolvement of the peerage had been announced, Akeno had the impression that Raynare - still in Rias body - could barely hide her glee about it. Of course the Fallen Angel had more than enough reason to be happy to see their end, she knew.

Even if Raynare´s attitude towards Issei seemed to have somehow completely changed... and Issei himself seemed to return the feeling... it clearly didn´t change the fact that she still hated the rest of them.

She and Koneko had listened to the two interacting with each other. With Issei knowing exactly who Raynare was. Akeno didn´t knew what to make of it. What in the world had happened between these two on the Spirit Plane? And how could Issei go behind all their backs like this?

She knew however the question was pointless now. Issei was dead, Rias had been dead for weeks and Raynare would gladly send them all to hell herself if she could.

The Fallen Angel had locked herself into Rias rooms for the last days (as if she had any right to even live in this rooms) and the only people she had truly been talking to were Azazel and Sirzechs.

As Akeno and the others had asked about this two days ago, they were gobsmacked by the answer they got. Azazel had explained to them that Raynare was the only person who possessed inside-knowledge about a dangerous threat they all were facing - namely the same people Lamia was working for - and was here as a `special guest´. And Sirzechs order them all to leave her alone unless she asked them to talk to her.

Despite, or maybe even because all of this, Akeno had gone with a request to both Lord and Lady Gremory and also Sirzechs yesterday. She and most of the other remaining members of the peerage had asked them for permission to go on a mission to find and destroy the Spirit Wraith.

 **xxxxxxx**

Meanwhile in Rias old room, Raynare was lying motionless on the bed. Her eyes were closed. But if they were open, they would show her own violet color, instead of Rias blue.

She was like in trance. For everyone else, it would be looking as if she was just talking to herself.

"Oh - don´t be like this," she said, as it looked to no one. "You will see, it will be far better without them."

 _xxx_

 _Flashback_

 _"How?" he asked._

 _"Magic, telepathy... and a bit more," Raynare said. "You see, just before Rias Gremory was about to kill me, I have send a small piece of my soul, along with a copy of my memories and placed it right into your subconscious, bounding it to your **own** soul."_

 _"The part of me that is bounded to you keeps the rest from moving on and is holding it on the Spirit Plane._

 _"Just by the way Issei, there is one other aspect said about the Soul Bonding that you might think interesting," Azazel said. "It is said that, for the technique to work... the two souls involved need to have a strong emotional connection to each other. Going both ways."_

 _"This very creative way in which you managed to trick death demonstrates it," Raynare heard Faust saying. "Yes - you have potential,_

 _xxx_

 _Flashback end_

"But I have to say Issei-kun, the pained look of that bitches faces was just glorious to see." A bitter and vicious smile for on her - on Rias - features.

"Yes - yes, as soon as I not longer shared the same pain, I know," she said a moment later. Her expression changed into something more ressembling regret.

"Tell me - have you really expected anything else? Do you think if our positions were reversed, they would have any compassion for me? Have you forgotten how Rias boasted about slaughtering my teammates? How she held their feathers into my face? Did you really expect me to just forgive and forget for no reason?"

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Raynare broke out of her self-inflicted mental trance.

"Ri- ahm Raynare-san-" Irina´s voice came from outside the door, "me and Asia are here. You said you wanted to talk to us."

"Yes - please come in," she said. "There is something I want to talk to you about."

* * *

 **I have finally finished the next chapter. It had taken quite a long time. Mostly because I concentrated more on my other stories for the last months. But also because I was not quite sure for some time how to realize this scenario.**

 **The twist in this chapter will probably come very unexpected for most readers.**


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